Rosberg: Twilight racing is 'dangerous'
Eurosport - Wed, 01 Apr 12:43:00 2009
Twilight racing is too dangerous and there is a risk that Sunday's Malaysian Grand Prix may have to be stopped for safety reasons, according to Williams driver Nico Rosberg.
The first two races of the Formula One season in Australia and Malaysia are starting later than this year, at 17:00 local time, to catch a bigger television audience in the European morning hours.
Drivers complained about the light conditions as the sun set in Melbourne last weekend and Malaysia could have the added complication of tropical downpours in the late afternoon.
"If the monsoon comes down, the race is going to have to be stopped because we can't race and drive with that amount of water," the German said during a Singapore stopover for sponsors RBS.
"I think twilight racing is not the way to go," added Rosberg, who finished second in the first night race in Singapore last year. "In Melbourne it was obvious that it just increases the danger so much.
"The visibility is so difficult, you can't even see the edges of the track in some corners. I was driving into the sun and that's not what racing is about. So I really hope they reconsider that.
"Even moving it forward by one hour or something will help us massively. It was just the last part of the race that was the really problematic time."
The season-opening race saw a one-two finish by the new Brawn GP team with former Williams driver Jenson Button leading the field from pole to finish ahead of Rubens Barrichello.
Rosberg, who topped the timesheets in every practice and set the quickest lap of that race, said Williams could claim to be the best of the rest and saw no reason why Brawn could not go on to take the title.
"Brawn have done a great job and have been massively quick in winter testing and also in Melbourne and I think they will sustain it," said Rosberg, the son of Finland's 1982 world champion Keke.
"It's going to be very difficult for anybody to catch up that advantage. They are seven-tenths down the road more or less per lap.
"We will be doing the best of our capability to catch up but they will be developing also so I think they are going to have a great chance for the championship."
Brawn, Williams and Toyota are using controversial rear diffusers that differ from those of other teams. Race stewards rejected a protest against them in Melbourne but the matter will go to appeal in Paris next month.
Rosberg said the new regulations had clearly altered the pecking order in Formula One, with champions Ferrari failing to score a point in Melbourne while McLaren's world champion Lewis Hamilton is struggling with a poor-performing car.
"I'm a great fan of the regulations. It gives everyone an even chance and improves the racing and improves the excitement, overtaking is possible. Fantastic." he said.
Williams, unlike some teams, are not using in the opening races the new KERS energy recovery system that gives cars an extra boost of power at the push of a button.
Rosberg said he wanted it as soon as possible.
"It was clear in Melbourne that, especially for racing, its a very beneficial thing to have. I was really struggling to hold behind me people with KERS and also to overtake people with KERS was difficult for me.
"It's definitely something we need to push hard to get on the car. I'm not sure when it's going to happen but hopefully soon.
"But also that makes it interesting for the racing, some teams have it and some teams don't. It's just a big mess and that's what the spectators need."
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Comment 37 - 56 of 56
Go away mouron, I don't think I'm the only one who is fed up with your trash talk and doesn't look forward to enduring your unfounded comments throughout the coming season. You're an ignorant moron and will always be. Go watch a knitting channel and do us all a favor
This is what I had complained before. Driving F1 car fast with setting sun's ray shining directly into your eyes. That will definitely blind the drivers.
Last year's first night race in Singapore. Originally they scheduled test sessions on Friday and Saturday to be around 5.30pm. I immediately wrote to Singapore GP organiser and the Singapore Motorsport Association to alert the concern of safety for the driver. I got a reply that FIA would ensure the safety of drivers, which is paramount, and they would looked into the twilight condition. I was relief that the test sessions was then put at latter time to capitalise on the real dark condition with artificial lighting so that drivers can acustom to the lighting condition.
It remained to be seen if safety is a big concern to race at night under heavy downpour. I don't have a good feeling about it.
As for in Malaysia, the low sun ray will be a problem for the drivers. If there is a heavy downpour in the twilight evening, won't the lighting condition be extremely poor in this part of the world at that time. Sepang has no artificial lighting.
Mr Bernie is interested to make money. FIA is not doing their job enough to ensure safety and permit racing at 5pm. A typical F1 race last 1.5 hours. The worse situation is 6pm, 1 hour after start of race. Did FIA official drive around the Sepang circuit at 6pm to check the twilight condition? Obviously not. If they had, they will realise the blinding low sun ray.
when i was on holiday i still got up at 3am to watch the race live, even with spanish com. true fans don't care about the time it's shown, they'll either get up anyway or set it to record and watch it when they want to. if the fans are someone who will switch it off or not care about it if it's shown at an odd hour of the day, then they're not the type of fan who buys tickets to see the races or anything so who cares if they're watching or not. do what's safe for the drivers, no one wants to see drivers hurt or worse, not to mention the cost of repairing the cars after they've crashed. i thought they were trying to make the teams save money.
It's also dangerous forcing drivers to have to put on the "bad tyres" ,especially in the heat of a good race, "well excuse me Bernie, but I can't race for the win, I have to pit for the bad tires now". If you think this is racing your mistaken. Even NASCAR isn't this stupid.
What next.. "well escuse me Bernie, but I can't race for the win,I have to slow down to save my engine,It has to go 2 more races,You know".
Nice one SIXONE,Six couldnt have put it better myself.
F1 has always made us believe Health and Safety is paramount for drivers and yet they will race in poor light for passive F1 fans to tune in across Europe, true F1 fans will get up at any time to watch a live race it's all part of loving the sport. Hope BBC rethink commentry box soon M B excellent but do we still need his embarrassing pit lane walk?
If we had more races in Europe, the timing wouldn't be a problem.
It just goes to show that FIA cares only about money and more money not driver safety or fans around the world .
Someone should remind Bernie that it is all about the racing, not about what time the audience wants to watch the race. The races have always been reshown later in the day for those who couldnt be bothered to get up early so why not stick with it.
Bernie wont be happy until we have fatal crashes again in F1. He should be put down like the rabid dog he is!
Definetily agree. Very dangerous indeed.
A boy racer died doing that silly thing last year when I was watching by chance a smoky night spectacle .
EEEEEEEEEEEE yer foooking siilllie beestads, stiiill whittering on a looood of bolooooks abooot stooopid foooking racin caaars. Shiiite shiiite shiiite, it is alll oil ere on this site, yar mindlesss bestads.
yoo neeeed sum prooper fooking woook to occupy yer time. Yoo speend oil yer time whittterin booolshiiite on ere.
Every mooonin oim up at the craaaak of down to milk me coiws and foook the sheeep befooor i can even think aboooot wonkin me piiigs.
Get a foookinn real liiife yer beestads yer, and stooop foooking talkin abooot kuuuntish shiiite loik race caaars or oil fooking set moi booool on yer, ya fooookers..
Potter,
Why do you write this unintelligible rubbish?
It gets hidden almost immediately, why waste your time?
f1fanatics,myforumx,com
No stalkers allowed
LIAR LIAR moronroute: You little stalker you.
If you remember mouron you also told us that Pedro de la Rosa would drive a Force India in the Australian GP, why are you NOT explaining why that did not happen?
You also told us that Hamilton would not be driving a car with No 1 on it, what happened there?
In fact you told us that the McLarens would not be allowed to drive in Melbourne, again what happened there?
.
So you made a lucky guess that Honda would be bought but you never said it was Ross Brawn until it was appearing in web sites like SportYA, Pitpass etc and we all knew it was Brawn. Before that you were asked time after time who was going to buy Honda and time after time you refused to say.
CLISPYDUCK IS A MIXED UP DUCK:Hey guys; you all been reading this and only one person has picked up on it, cant anyone see how clispyduck is so mixed up, i had info that ROSS BRAWN had bought honda and clispyduck wrote this!!!touronroute: funny how you knew it was SEVEN? hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
Well, if you were a LIAR for a living you would certainly be richer than all of us in here put together.
Face it,how do you know Brawn has been sold and nobody else even knows not even Bernie or his staff LIAR LIAR touronroute.
From clispyduck, on Mon 16 Feb 9:18pm
::CLISPYDUCK IS A MIXED UP DUCK MIXED UP DUCK MIXED UP ,
Its official, potter is a moron.
SILENCE IN COURT.
The court will be sitting in 15 minutes.
Many F1 issues to resolve today.
All rise..................
well tt I agree with Morefius 100%. The series definitely needs someone new. Bernie is driving it into the ground. The world is a much smaller place now and technology has changed things. Leave the races at circurts that best suit the drivers, teams, manufacturers and sponsors. And leave the start times as they were. Can't wait until the Abu Dabi circut failes to be completed on time and leave Bernie with 16 races this year.
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